The Menaia of Two Domkas. Once More on the Scribes of the Menaia from the Novgorod Convent of St. Lazarus

Savva M. Mikheev

Abstract

The article deals with the history of several manuscripts related to the Novgorod convent of St. Lazarus.

The study focuses on two sets of ancient Menaia: the Menaia of the 1090s for the first three months of the liturgical year, which were jointly written by Jacob Domka and Michael, and five Menaia for other months, written by Matthew and Lawrence. The handwriting of the first scribe of the January Menaion, previously anonymous, is attributed to St. Lazarus’ priest Domka, the first scribe of the Milyatino Gospel and the second scribe of the St. Lazarus (or Skovorodka) Prophetologion, the oldest known Slavic Prophetologion.

Analysis of the colophons of Jacob Domka, Domka the priest and Matthew suggests that the Menaia for September, October and November were written for the Zverin convent of the Mother of God, whereas the Milyatino Gospel and the Menaia for January, February, April, July and August—for St. Lazarus convent. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the Menaia for January—August were created in the nearby Holy Spirit Friary.

Also, the paper discusses the history of manuscripts received at the Moscow Printing House in 1679 from the Novgorod convent of St. Lazarus and the monastery of Archangel Michael on Skovorodka and includes revised texts of all scribal notes found in the two abovementioned sets of Menaia.

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